It's Better If You Don't Ask

As is typical for Sunday mornings in our house, I'm up before everyone else (these are the joys of having a body clock set to getting up five day per week to go to work. I find I can no longer sleep in like I did during my college days; sad, I know. So, I put on my pot of coffee and set out on the internet. There really is no rhyme or reason to my internet surfing, but one thing leads to another and the next thing I know I looking at vacations homes in Florida. Ha, not really but you get the idea.

This morning I made the usual rounds of my email, which as usual was filled with junk. I have gone on a bit of a spree lately where I am unsubscribing from a bunch of email lists. These stupid sales they send me emails about are just too tempting. I have emails from One Kings Lane, Joss & Main, Lands End, Eddie Bauer, Amazon, Ebay... I can't handle all the temptation. After I unsubscribed from a few more email lists, I checked on my facebook to see how many of my friends are still reeling from my beloved Packers loss last night. And no, I don't want to talk about it. Right now, I don't want to think about it. I can't process yet again the fact that I won’t get to see my team in action again until August, and who knows how many of my favorite players they are going to cut by then.

When my facebook loop was complete, I checked out some random open houses (read the title of this post, that should tell you what you need to know). After I decided that to get the home of my dreams with the kind of kitchen I want I'm going to have to drop $300,000 plus, I gave up. As my Grandma used to say, champagne taste on a beer budget. In addition to randomly looking at houses, I routinely plan out full vacations that we won’t take for years. I look up airfare, hotels, the whole nine yards.

So, I stumble over to Amazon to see what things they have on sale that I don't need to spend money on. Especially after spending a cool chunk of change on Buddy at the vet yesterday for his annual vaccines, I'm feeling especially broke until tax return time. Now, here is where the title of this post really comes from. I find myself looking at random baby items, and next thing I know I have created an Amazon list for a baby that Andrew and I have only really talked about in theory. No, we aren't thinking about having a baby any time in the next yearish. If I had to guess, I'm thinking this list creation is stemming from the baby dreams I have been having lately. A few of them have been something like I'm sitting at the doctor’s office for a routine exam blissfully unaware that when the doctor comes in she is going to tell me I'm pregnant. Others I have had, the baby has already arrived. I think I had one where I was in labor, clearly that was more a nightmare than anything else. I didn't even have this many wedding dreams before the wedding. I don't know what is up with these dreams, but if they could kindly remove themselves from my nightly repertoire, I would appreciate it.

So, back to my Amazon list creation. Of course I realize the general basics for a baby, crib, changing table (yes I realize you don't necessarily NEED one), bottles, pacifiers, diapers, stroller, car seat, etc. Many of you have kids, you know how the list goes. Somewhere between strollers and bottles, I had a mini meltdown. How in the name of everything insane can there be this many choices for bottles? Plastic, glass, fifty different kinds of nipples, 4 oz, 8 oz, and queue my meltdown here. I can't even decide some mornings what I want for breakfast let alone what kind of bottle my theory child should use. I don't know how you pregnant ladies out there aren't just sitting in a ball under a table somewhere. I wanted to, and I don't really have to worry about this stuff right now. After a meltdown over these things, I'm thinking I probably shouldn't be held responsible for the life of another human being. Maybe you should ask my doggies what they think of my abilities to take care of them. Hopefully they would tell you I do alright. The other meltdown I have is over the sheer cost of all this baby stuff. Dang kids, mama aint made of money. $200 for a stroller, $150 for a crib, $10 for a crib sheet, another $100 plus for a mattress, it is just getting out of hand at that point, and that isn't even a quarter of the crap you need. So, before I had a total panic attack over all this information, I closed out of Amazon. I don't know how you new moms do it, but I commend you. When the time does come for Andrew and I to expand the family again, I will be coming to all of you for advise, consider this your warning!

 

New Year, Not Another Resolution

Most people make resolutions in the new year quit something that is a bad habit, workout more, travel, etc. I posted a week or so ago about my resolution for the new year, so I thought I would post about something I didn't make a resolution about: weight loss and working out. I can't stick with it, ever, no matter how hard I try and how many lies I tell myself about it. I bargain with myself, offer "rewards" for working out on a regular basis and still nada. I go through spurts where I think now this is going to get to a ridiculous point where I'm not going to be able to climb a flight of stairs without feeling like I'm near death. At 25 years old, I think that is a problem. Every summer at work, we have a health screening and I dread that moment when the male model looks at me and tells me to step on the scale so they can take my weight. I swear all the people they have working for this company we contract out to for the testing must be under 100 lbs, and it has a way of making you feel like crap. Granted, I am never going to be stick skiny, but that doesn't stop me from feeling bad about it. What I really want to say to the dude the next time he tells me to step on the scale is, "can we just act like this is the DOT and I tell you what I want my weight to be and you just smile and nod." I already know what they are going to tell me; I need to exercise on a regular basis. The only exercise I probably get on a regular basis is running from my office screaming "free at last" each night.

Of course, popular culture doesn't do much in the way of boosting ones self esteem either. I try to avoid all things fashion related on Pinterest as once again, it is all stick skinny models. I have news for these people, the clothes missing from the rack at the store when I go there aren't the size 0-4's... what does that tell you about the "normal size" of women?

Now, lets view some of the evidence of my lovely weight fluctuation

Here we are at my high school graduation, so going on about eight years ago. 

 

Here I am below in Panama in May of 2008, so 3 years after the previous picture. By this point, I was working out at Curves on a pretty regular basis. I know not the best picture, but you can tell I have lost some weight through the face.

And here I am in Italy a couple months later, still staying pretty thin. In fact, that was probably the least I have weighed at any point in the last five years. And to think, this was probably after a week of eating nothing but pasta and gelato.

 

And now, a couple years later in 2010 at my college graduation... clearly the weight has shown back up.

 

And our engagement photo from fall of 2010, right before I started to get serious about dropping lbs. for the wedding.  By the time the wedding rolled around, I had to get rid of the jeans I have on in this photo because they were falling off me.  

In June of 2011 at my parents wedding. Only a few months before our wedding, I was kicking the workouts in to high gear.

And our wedding day. What is that? A defined waist? I haven't seen that in a while.

 

 

 

 

And if you wanted a current picture, you are out of luck. Take the first picture from my high school graduation, age it 8 years and there you go.

The total difference in weight there is at most probably fifty pounds. Ok, that is a lot and I know it is hard on my body to put it on and work it off and then have it creep back on again. So, my goal is to drop the weight I did for the wedding, and keep it off. I know what I need to do that, let's see if I can stick to it. I never really change my diet because I don't eat terribly to begin with. I love fruits and veggies, and while I don’t eat them as much in the winter, I devour them in the summer. I do have a lot of carbs in my diet. I love pasta, bread, and potatoes. Sorry South Beach Diet lovers or Atkins people, whichever it is, that try to cut carbs out, it doesn't work for me. If you start taking foods away from me that I love, it isn't going to last. The big thing for me is to watch my snacking, easier said than done. I try to cut my pop intake, also easier said than done, and drink more water. I know some people can't stand the taste of water, I don’t mind it but I certainly don’t crave it, especially in the winter time. So, there you have it ladies and gentlemen (I don’t know if there are any of those that read this), the plan is in place. Now, check back with me in a year and see what is happening. I did get a 25 minute workout in today over lunch at work, so that is progress. 



 

 

 

New Year Means a New Project

There seems to be a pretty common theme with our projects at the house.  They all start with a brilliant idea which leads to a major project.  Case and point, the stairs.  I had the great idea that we should move our master bedroom upstairs, which brought us to the full remodel of the upstairs.  It's too cold upstairs, the stairs prevent us from moving furniture upstairs, so the only solution is to totally renovate the second story.  I'm kidding, I know there are a lot of other solutions. 

This leads me to the project we created for ourselves yesterday.  The problem: Buddy needs steps to get on and off the bed.  Andrew got a new saw for Christmas from my parents, so he can finally create the stairs we want to make for Buddy and Maya.  However, the arrangement we had in the bedroom didn't leave enough space for the stairs and for me to move around.  The solution: rearrange the bedroom.  We started moving things around in the bedroom, and decided there wasn't enough room.  Our second solution was to move the bed upstairs.  So, we took apart the bed, did some measuring, and decided to haul the bed upstairs.  As soon as we got it to the steps, it was clear it wasn't going up.  The space between the stairs and the ceiling in the kitchen wasn't tall enough to allow the box spring to go up.  So, the bed went back downstairs and we came up with an arrangement that will work for now. 

Now comes the destruction part of the day.  I noticed when we moved in that one of the walls in our bedroom wasn't the same texture as the others.  All the walls in our house have texture on them, the wall in our bedroom had a semi smooth texture.  I thought it might be drywall, but I wasn't sure and there was only one way to find out.  There was some weird random trim pieces on the wall, which we discovered were concealing the seams in whatever was covering the wall.  There was a small piece of this wall covering under the window, so we thought we would start with that since it was the easiest to conceal.  When we took it off, we discovered that it was pretty much paneling that someone glued to the wall and painted white.  There was a small crack in the wall, so at that point we decided we needed to know what the paneling was covering.  If there was a gigantic crack in the wall, we needed to know about it.  We took down all the paneling, and as luck would have it there were no major cracks in the wall. 

The only problem with taking the paneling down is that we are left looking at this:

 

We like to think it is some kind of funky art deco thing going on.  Really, it is red paint, which I wish they would have just left on the wall, the swirls are glue, and two layers of the most beautiful wallpaper (kidding).  There was some kind of pink floral wallpaper and a mint green wallpaper.  Our next project is to sand all this down, prime it and paint it. 

New Year, Almost

Since this is my first post after Christmas, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours flew by pretty quick with Andrew working a lot of overtime.

 

I know it isn't quite the New Year yet, but I have to work tomorrow so today is my chance to post this. I'm not really a huge New Years Resolution person, mostly because I know I wont carry them out. I know, that is kind of a lame excuse, but I don't really enjoy setting myself up for failure if I can help it. While doing some reflection the past couple of weeks, I have come to a few conclusions about what I want to do in the new year. So, rather than making a bunch of small goals, I am going to use one rule of thumb for the year: does it make me happy (queue Sheryl Crow song here)? Now, before you all jump my case about that being a really selfish goal, let me explain.

 

I am a huge people pleaser, and I know I'm not the only one with this problem. Being a people pleaser isn't necessarily a bad thing, except when you are constantly compromising your own happiness for that of others. This is what I have learned after 15 plus year of therapy, and I don’t want to know how much money. I have gotten better at sticking up for myself over the years, and saying no when I would normally say yes because I didn't want to let someone down. But, I still struggle with a lot of the large decisions in life, and you would think those would be the easier ones.

 

One of my biggest motivators for this seemingly selfish goals is at some point in the next couple of years, we are likely going to look at starting a family (aside from the two children we already have, Buddy and Maya). Being a parent is the most selfless job in the world. So, while I can, I am going to take some final "me time".

 

In order to really start this hard look at the things in my life that do and don't make me happy, I decided to take inventory.

 

Things that make me happy:

 

My family: I love them all to death. This includes my immediate and extended family, my husband and my four legged children.

 

Coffee: yes, boys and girls, coffee is on this list because it makes me happy. When I can sit down with my coffee in a quiet room, that is Zen time for me.

 

Travel: I LOVE to travel, unfortunately money precludes me from doing it as often as I would like. Andrew and I both love to travel, so we try and make it a point of going on one big trip a year. The other day I announced to him that among the small things I want to do before we have a baby, I want to go to Paris.

 

Reading: Now, this is a hard one for me because it is something I haven't done in a long time. I was excited to graduate college so I could finally read what I wanted, but that didn't happen. In fact, I think I have now been on an almost three year reading hiatus. I can't tell you the last book I finished. Sad, I know.

 

*This is by no means an exhaustive list of things that make me happy, but it gives you a general idea.

 

Now for the tough stuff, and this made for some tough decisions.

 

As you have followed along with throughout the summer, Andrew and I have been on the go working on weddings across the state. It makes for some fun times, early mornings and late nights. It is really hard to explain everything that goes into these weddings, loading and unloading a trailer, leaving town at 5:00 AM to return home at 2:00 AM the following day, hauling furniture including sofas and hutches in and out of rooms, setting tables and chairs, etc. While it is rewarding to see the brides and grooms happy when they see everything come together, it makes for some really long days. Working full time, and being on the go all weekend took its toll on me. There were Monday's I had to take time off to simply sleep. Living of less than 10 hours of sleep in 72 hours doesn't cut it for me. At the start of this adventure, I was excited to work with flowers again. Flowers are one of my passions. However, it grew into so much more than just working with flowers. I literally felt like I gave up my whole summer. We were around most of July, but it was too hot to do much of anything. So while this decision is probably going to mean some hurt feelings, I think it is time for Andrew and I to step away from this adventure. In the end, the sacrifice outweighs the reward.

 

I need more time to be with family, work in the yard, work on the house, enjoy life! I want to take more walks with the dogs, take more day trips, and actually complete a few of the projects we want to. This next year, I want to actually finish a book, take a vacation with the dogs, get the house organized, get more work done in the yard, eat more ice cream, actually work out on a regular basis, have more picnics, and grill out more. What are your resolutions?

 

4 Days Til Christmas...

Christmas time in our house means baking up a storm and Andrew spending a lot of time at work.  "Peak Season" can sometimes be the phrase of death in our house.  Once Thanksgiving hits, I always joke with Andrew that I will see him again after Christmas.  It really isn't terrible, it just makes for a few long nights.  As you can imagine at UPS this time of year, things get a little bit crazy.  Christmas time means more boxes to ship, and thanks to the increase in online shopping things get a little crazier every year.  I think they saw a pretty big jump in volume this year from the Cyber Monday sales.  Although, this year it seemed like not only was there Cyber Monday, there were also a lot of Black Friday deals online.  Why not shop from the comfort of your home at 9:00 on Thanksgiving night rather than stand outside freezing your butt off with hundreds of other lunatics.  I use that word with the utmost affection as Andrew and I have been out there the past couple of years. 

Last year, we stood in the checkout line at Best Buy for over two hours just to buy the Harry Potter boxed Blue Ray set.  Yes, two hours, you read that right.  But, I love that set and it was worth every minute.  After we made our purchases at Best Buy, we headed over the Kohls to score a few deals there as well.  It took us ten minutes to find what we wanted and at least an hour of standing in line.  I remember being a Target and Best Buy the year before that, but for the life of me can't remember what was so important I had to get up at 3:00 AM for.  I think that might be a bad sign that it probably wasn't worth it. 

In case you have been living under a rock the last week, it snowed... A LOT.  I think we got 13 inches of snow in town.  We lost a few rather large branches in the yard, but we count ourselves lucky since a few of our neighbors lost half of their trees.  None of our branches landed on the house or caused any damage.  Although, the large branch that feel in front of the house landed where Andrew usually parks his car, so it was a good thing he parked in the driveway that night.  Someone was watching out for us on that one.  There were a lot of people that lost power, and we also consider ourselves lucky to only have lost power for a short time overnight on Wednesday night.

This was Maya's first snow, and she loved it!  She wasn't sure what to think at first, but before long she was running around like a crazy woman in it.  She was batting at chunks of snow and burying her nose it it.  Of course, she also enjoys eating the snow.  Buddy can't get in and out fast enough, we think the cold is probably a lot for his old man bones. 

Those branches don't normally touch the deck

 

Buddy and Maya armed for the cold! 

Being snowed in meant time for me to spend baking.  Really I was planning to bake anyway, the snow was just a good excuse to not go anywhere.  I knocked out two batches of sugar cookies, sour cream chocolate chip cookies, cookies and cream fudge, Oreo balls, and peppermint brownies.  Andrew had a potluck at work today, so he also made a White Chocolate torte.  Andrew and I both took some treats to work to share.  We certainly don't need them sitting around the house!   


Today, I learned a valuable lesson.  For every time I may grumble about having a car payment again, I love my Rogue and I love sitting higher off the ground and having all wheel drive.  If the city considers what they have done plowing, I'm a little concerned.  But, I had minimal issues getting around thanks to my new set of wheels! 

Finally, An Update

I know my updates lately have been limited, but I have been working on something that I couldn't share until now.  Yesterday, my mom graduated with her Masters in Public Administration.  I am so proud of her!  I have been working on a surprise party for her.  Obviously I couldn't share any of the planning details until now since it was a surprise.  We tried to keep it a total surprise, but by last week she knew something was going on.  I think she was still surprised when guests started to arrive.  Thank you to everyone that came out and helped us celebrate. 

 

Way to go Mom! 

 

Our spread of food. I realized while looking through these photos that this is the only one I took of the party which is a bummer because I had some awesome arrangements that I wanted to take photos of.  The arrangements have since be re-homed in my living room.  It smells amazing in here from all the Christmas greens I used.  Here are a few photos of the flowers now. 

 

 

We had some orchids from the wedding we did last weekend, so of course I used those.  These babies are normally about $2/stem so anytime I can get my hands on them I use them.  Have I mentioned my love of calla lilies?  We had the mini calla lilies at our wedding.  I love the large ones, they look so amazing.  The last arrangement is white roses and evergreen, which I also love.  Sometimes the fewer flowers the better. 

 

We kept the food pretty simple.  I made some cocktail meatballs in the crock pot, which disappeared pretty quickly.  They are super easy to make. 2/3 C. bbq sauce 12 oz. apricot preserves and we used two smaller bags of frozen meatballs.  Put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 2-3 hours.  We also had some cheese and crackers.  I used Cracker Barrel cheese, which was pretty darn good.  We also had some hot appetizers from Trader Joe's.  I have to be honest, I have shopped in the store before, but I think the only things we have bought there are some wine and maybe some cheese.  The appetizers were pretty good and also disappeared pretty quickly. 

 

I made the same super easy punch I made a couple of weeks ago at the Jewel Kade party I hosted at the house. 

Cranberry Champagne Punch

 

2 bottles of champagne, chilled

(you don't have to go expensive on this because it all kind of blends together)

1 bottle white wine, chilled

1 ltr bottle club soda, chilled

1 can frozen pink lemonade

1 can frozen cranberry cocktail/cranberry blend

1 can frozen limeade (you start with about 1/2 of the can and add to taste)

 

Mix everything up in a punch bowl and you have a nice adult beverage!

 

UPDATE:

 

I almost forgot about the desserts, how could I they were the best part!  We had some yummy desserts, cheesecake bites, mini red velvet cupcakes and tiramisu all made by a family friend that does an amazing job.  He makes Andrew's birthday cheesecake each year and did an amazing one for Andrew's "grooms cake" at our wedding.   

 

 

I think things will calm down a little now.  Of course we have Christmas right around the corner and once UPS and Fedex come to my door, I will have all my shopping done.  I need to get some baking done, so I should probably get on that too.  Christmas has kind of creeped up on me this year.  Anyone else feel that way.  I had a lot of good intentions going into the Christmas season.  I was going to get a photo done of the Andrew and I with the pups in front of the house to send for our Christmas cards, but that hasn't happened.  That is the only thing I can think of right now, but I know there are other things I wanted to get done.  Maybe once Christmas is over I can get started on my winter project list.  Andrew has some projects he will be working on too.  He is going to make some steps for the dogs to get on the bed so they aren't jumping on and off.  Maya I don't worry about so much, but that is a lot of stress on Buddy's old joints.  We need to keep our puppies healthy and injury free. 

 

I will try to do a better job keeping up with things on here, I don't know where the last month has gone. 

 

 

 

Long Time No See

Once again, I'm slacking on the posting.  There for a while, I had a lot of stuff to post about.  When we were doing work outside this summer, it seemed like every week there was something new.  There was always wedding stuff to post about this summer.  We are coming up on our last wedding this weekend and then we are done until the spring.  Winter just seems to be the general slow time for wedding season.  Andrew wanted a winter wedding, but with the Midwest weather being so insane and unpredictable, I couldn't commit to that.  Of course, with the winter we had last year I think we would have been fine.  Oh well! 

Last week I hosted a jewelry party at my house, so I spent most of the week getting ready for that.  Thank you to all those that came, I enjoyed seeing you all!  After the party, I really had no motivation to do anything house related.  My lack of motivation seems to have carried into this week as well.  I get home at night from work and I am dead tired and all I want to do is sit on my rear and watch TV.  I know many of you can relate.  Just when I think I can do just that, sit down and do nothing, I remember there is dinner to cook and dogs to feed and laundry to do and bills to pay....

For those that don't know, Andrew and I work split shifts.  Sometimes I find it difficult to deal with him not being home at night, but it does have its perks.  For example, if I leave a load of laundry or two out, he will do them for me.  If I had a crock pot recipe I want to get going, he will start it for me.  He takes care of the dogs and keeps them company.  Today, he cleaned up the kitchen for me.  Don't you wish you could come home and find the laundry fairy came to visit? 

A few of you have asked me how Maya is doing and how Maya and Buddy are getting along.  As of yesterday, Maya is six months old!  You can totally tell she is still a puppy too.  She and Buddy are getting along quite well.  They love to chase each other around the house and around the yard.  Buddy can keep up with Maya when he wants to, but most times he is content to outsmart her and run the opposite direction to meet her.  Last month, Maya was spayed.  She was such a good girl and didn't like at her stitches, so we didn't have to put the lovely e collar on her.  No cone days for Maya!  The same day, she also had one of her last baby teeth removed to make room for her adult teeth to come in, and she was micro chipped.  She did great with the surgery and has made a full recovery, with the exception of the hair they had to shave.  She still looks a little odd with some of the hair on her belly shaved off. 

The ongoing issue we have had with Maya are her ears.  When we first got her and had her checked out, she had a pretty bad yeast infection in both ears.  We have since been able to get rid of the infection in her left ear, but she still has a mild case in the right year.  For Beagles, ear care is a pretty big deal.  Their adorable floppy ears are prone to infections.  Our first course of action was a medicated drop/spray a couple of times per day.  Maya got pretty good at sitting still and letting us put it in her ears.  When that didn't clear things up in the right ear, we added a medicated rinse.  We were doing the rinse a couple of times per day and the other drop once per day.  It was quite the routine.  I think we finally have things cleared up now; she doesn't seem to be scratching like she used to.  She does really well when we mess with her ears and just goes on about her business when we are done.  Buddy, on the other hand, hates when we go anywhere near his ears.  We try to clean his out with a general rinse every couple of weeks.  When we do that, it is followed by a couple hours of him going back and forth across the living room rubbing his ear on the floor.  You would think we were torturing him, poor duder.  We can't help but laugh when he does it because it is just so insane and Maya just stands there and looks at him like "what is your problem, dude".  

Our doggies keep us on our toes, but we wouldn't trade them for the world.  When Andrew calls me at night to let me know he is headed home from work, they are waiting by the door for him when he comes home.  Maya loves to share her kisses with him and Buddy will take all the tummy rubs he can get.  They are pretty amazing.  Sometimes, they make me want to pull my hair out though.  There was the night I came home and found poop on the living room floor (courtesy of Buddy) and Maya's food container tipped over with food pouring out.  No telling how much of Maya's food Buddy actually ate, but he was a little messed up in the tummy for a few days.  I think he learned his lesson, because he has left her food alone since.  There was the morning that I was drying my hair and came out to find a piece of aluminum foil shredded to bits all over my freshly vacuumed floor, that was courtesy of Maya.  There are of course the million toys they have destroyed.  There is the fact that I can't eat a meal without them staring at me like I am their last meal, or the fact that they are right at my feet when I'm in the kitchen.  Our lives have certainly changed with two dogs in them.  So, for those of you wondering when we are going to get  arond to having kids, as you have read we already have two. Until Maya is a little older, I don't think I could handle adding two more feet to the eight I already have chasing me around at night. 

What would we do without our pets!